Reflections of Persian classical music

“Rokh” means “face” in persian

Rokhs Quartet unveils the multiplicity of faces of the Persian classical repertoire, unravelling with inspired sensibility the rich weave of its influences and expressions into original compositions and novel arrangements of the tradition.

Story

Rokhs project began in the winter 2021 as a duo, with friends Sogol Mirzaei on târ and Hossein Rad on vocals and percussions. A year later, two more renowned young musicians joined the project, thus a quartet: Yasamin Shahhossein on oud and Sina Danesh on kamancheh, achieving a subtle and fertile harmony of tones and styles. Since 2023, the talented young oud player Ava Aresazan has also joined the group as second oud player alternating with Yasamin.

The Rokhs Quartet performs classical Persian music with the aim of capturing the diversity of its aspects and influences. It seeks to understand and express the aesthetic essence of these different repertoires. Like the Language of Birds by the twelfth-century Persian sufi poet, Farid al-Din Attar, each instrument finds its own new and unique path, all the while contributing to the quartet’s quest for unity and communion. Its name comes from the word Rokh, which means ‘face’ in Persian, and also refers to a fabulous bird in Persian and Indian fairy tales.

Sogol Mirzaei

Târ

Sogol Mirzaei is a rising star of Persian music in the western scene. She first trained under master musicians Houshang Zarif and Arshad Tahmasebi in Tehran, and performed on the most prestigious stages of the country. Now based in Paris where she moved to pursue academic studies in musicology at the Sorbonne, she is involved in numerous eclectic and successful projects, such as Jordi Savall’s Orpheus 21 and Accords Croisés’ headliners (Atine, Sowal Diabi) with which she performs around the world ; while she also shines as a soloist and within her own project Chakam Ensemble, which she founded in 2014, where her inspired compositions meet the authentic tradition.

Hossein Rad

Vocals, dârayeh, tombak

Hossein Rad is a Geneva-based musician and music producer, born in Tehran. He began learning music with his father at an early age, and he has constantly sought to further his musical knowledge of the vocal and instrumental repertoires of Iranian classical music since, with important maestros such as Ali Bayâni, Djamchid Chemirani, Hamid-Reza Khalatbari, as well as western vocal technics with Muriel Ferraro. His interests reaching far and wide, he has devoted considerable attention to the different traditional repertoires of the region, namely those of Central Asia which he approached under guidance of Jean During. Hossein is the founder of Horan Sounds, a non-profit music agency which supports Iran-based musicians and promotes their projects abroad.

Yassamin Shahhosseini

Oud

Yasamin Shahhosseini, a native of Tehran, has distinguished herself as a leading young master of the oud, for which she was awarded with a prestigious Aga Khan Music Award in 2022. Highly regarded for her work with a variety of innovative ensembles as well as for her solo compositions and improvisations, her live performances and recordings shine both for their technical finesse and for the thoughtful way that she incorporates traditional material into a fresh and original musical language. Yasamin published an acclaimed oud solo album, Gahan, released in Tehran in 2015, and has become since 2020 a close musical accomplice of major international artists Ross Daly and Keyhan Kalhor.

Sina Danesh

Kamâncheh

An early prodigy of the kamâncheh, Sina Danesh won first prize at the Fajr International Music Festival youth competition at age 12 only. He first started learning music with Moussa Mohammadi, later completed his training under Ahmad Mohsenpour, and went on to study at the Tehran University of Arts, where he graduated in Iranian music performance. A member of the ensemble “Sheyda” of the legendary Mohammad Reza Lotfi from back in 2008, he is also the founder of the Ân ensemble, and regularly performs his kamâncheh for high end productions.

Ava Arresazan

Oud

Oud player and composer, Ava Arresazan began learning music as a child with her mother, Azar Zargarian. A little later, she continued her oud training with Ehsan Emami and at the age of 18 she entered the School of Fine Arts (University of Tehran) to study Iranian music. At the same time, she began her professional career performing at the Niavaran Hall with the group Shahrazad. During this time, she was taught by Negar Boban, Dariush Talai and Yordal Tokjan, and won first prize in the 11th National Festival of Youth on oud. Immediately after graduating, she began a Master’s degree in composition, focusing on contemporary Western music, at the same university. During this period, she began collaborating with the ” Aan ” and “Noroud” ensembles, with whom she recorded two albums: “Aftab Roshan” and “Noroud”.